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Story highlights Entrepreneur opened up the small hotel using memorabilia from Hong Kong's Occupy Central protests For as little as $10 per night, guests can pay to sleep in an original occupy tent 11-week-long pro-democracy protests captured the imagination of people around the world

Tucked away in an apartment building on a quiet side street of Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay district, this small hotel is a shrine to the Umbrella Revolution.

Freelance translator Stephen Thompson rented the apartment in early December, in the same week that police began clearing out the city's pro-democracy protest sites.

"I literally got the keys and then the next day I went down to Admiralty (the main protest site) and the police were coming and I just grabbed as much as I could," says Thompson.

Posters, artwork and memorabilia from all three main protest sites now plaster every inch of the 600 square foot abode.

Rows of construction helmets are mounted neatly on the wall, gas masks hang like ornaments around a door frame, newspaper clippings wallpaper the kitchen and a yellow umbrella serves a partial curtain, shielding the living room from the sun.

"I had the idea at first of an exhibition," Thompson says, "and then when they (police) gave me the tents I thought, well, I'll put the tents in here too."

And the idea for Occupy Central Hotel was born.

For as little as HK$78 ($10) per night, guests can pay via a listing on Airbnb to sleep in an original occupy tent. The two-bedroom apartment accommodates a total of eight, Thompson says, but five is the most he's rented at once. Each tent is adorned with a name relating to the movement, such as "Freedom House" and "Foreign Force HQ."

Nicholas Watmough, 26, followed the Hong Kong protests from his hometown of Manchester, England, and recently extended his visit at the hotel.

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Fully occupied? Hong Kong's protest hotel

January 29, 2015, 6:01 PM Last updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 7:41 PM

By PETER J. SAMPSON

Marko Georgiev/ Staff photographer

A day after the five-alarm fire, the rubble and wreckage were still charred and smoking.

A mother and daughter who lost everything when their unit at the Avalon at Edgewater luxury apartment complex went up in flames last week on Thursday became the second set of tenants to sue their landlord, claiming negligence led to the inferno.

Sarah Jacobo, an executive assistant at an Edgewater specialty food company, and her daughter, Lisette Jacobo, an account training manager in New York City, were driving home on Jan. 21 when the thick smoke pouring from the two-building, four-story complex turned them away.

They lost everything, said their attorney, Barry D. Epstein of Rochelle Park. Its a very emotional situation and a difficult situation to cope with, he added.

The suit names AvalonBay Communities Inc., and Avalon Bay River Mews, owners and landlords of the 408-unit complex, as defendants, along with other as yet unknown individuals and companies, who together are claimed to be liable for the losses, property damages, emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering the Jacobos say they were forced to endure.

The suit also seeks punitive damages, claiming the defendants conduct was malicious and recklessly disregarded and was indifferent to the interests of others, including the plaintiffs.

Without being specific, the suit claims the defendants violated applicable statutes and/or building codes and standards and safety procedures and that, as a result, a fire was negligently caused to be started that destroyed more than half of the complex.

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Second lawsuit filed in Edgewater apartment building fire

January 29, 2015, 5:39 PM Last updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 8:31 PM

CHRIS PEDOTA/staff photographer

Officials have said the destroyed Edgewater building had lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing.

Pressure is mounting for a review of state building codes and even a potential construction moratorium in the aftermath of a fast-moving fire that destroyed more than half of an Edgewater apartment complex last week and left hundreds homeless.

Officials in Mercer County on Thursday called for an emergency review of state construction codes before a residential community planned by the same developer for Princeton gets evaluated by the state. And Assemblyman Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, said he is working on legislation that will put a moratorium of up to two years on the approval and construction of multi-family housing developments until the states building code is revised.

The goal is not have any New Jersey residents lives at stake. But equally as important, its to not put our first responders into these buildings, which I would call fire traps, said Rumana. I have too much experience in seeing the failures of these types of facilities if this fire happened seven or 10 hours later, who knows how many people could have died?

A five-alarm blaze at the Avalon at Edgewater destroyed much of the 408-unit complex, shut schools and roadways, temporarily displaced nearby residents and brought to the surface long-standing issues in the firefighting community about lightweight wood construction a cheaper, faster and legal style of building that is common in New Jersey and elsewhere.

This type of construction is of particular concern when fire breaks out because of the potential for collapse and materials to burn quickly. Officials said the gutted Edgewater complex had lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing.

The lightweight wood construction used to build the Edgewater complex is the reason the fire raced through the luxury apartment development so quickly, said Rumana. Buildings constructed with such highly flammable materials are virtual tinderboxes.

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes and Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, meanwhile, are calling for an emergent review of the states Uniform Construction Code prior to the formal evaluation by the state of AvalonBays plan to construct 280 housing units on a former hospital site.

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Assemblyman Rumana drafting legislation for 2-year moratorium on construction of multi-family housing

Tampa Bay Times

Thursday, January 29, 2015 5:35pm

After nine, teeth-rattling months, the pile driving in downtown St. Petersburg has stopped. City officials confirm the work was completed last week and won't resume. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]

After nine, teeth-rattling months, the pile driving in downtown St. Petersburg has stopped. City officials confirm the work was completed last week and won't resume. The aggravating preparation for building a 19-floor apartment building and adjacent garage at 330 Third St. S was supposed to take five months. But since April it had pounded on, eventually prompting the construction company to take a holiday hiatus and city council members to promise a still-pending review of the city's building rules. The experience has prompted other builders of proposed downtown towers to say they plan to use less noisy methods to stabilize their buildings' infrastructure.

Hear what you're missing: Pile driving in downtown St. Pete 01/29/15 [Last modified: Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:13pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints

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Hear what you're missing: Pile driving in downtown St. Pete

Charlotte developer Daniel Levine is preparing to start construction on an apartment building uptown that should bring 264 more units to First Ward, he said Wednesday.

The 10th Street Apartments will be located on Brevard Street, at the intersection with an extension of 10th Street. The six-story apartment building will wrap a 1,400-space parking deck, Levine said. Site work, such as removing light poles from the existing surface parking deck, has begun, and Levine said grading should begin in less than 30 days.

Its a full-block development, Levine said.

He said the parking deck and first apartments should be ready in about 16 months. Samet Corp. is signed on to build the apartments, and Rodgers Builders will handle the parking deck, Levine said.

His company, Levine Properties, has long held land in First Ward. In September, Levine broke ground on First Ward Park. The 4-acre site occupies former parking lots between Seventh Street at the ImaginOn childrens library and Ninth Street at UNC Charlottes Center City Building.

The park, to be completed this year, is expected to be the centerpiece of a new urban village. Its expected to be the first step of an ambitious plan to redevelop the area with as much as $1billion worth of hotels, offices and residences.

Levines company is also building a 105-unit upscale apartment building just south of Plaza Midwood, at St. Julien Street and Commonwealth Avenue.

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Levine getting ready to start construction on uptown apartments

New home construction in Connecticut rose by 14 percent in 2014, with single-family houses leading the way, a new report Wednesday shows.

Permits for single-family houses, condominiums and apartment units rose to 4,603 last year, compared with 4,027 for 2013. The levels of building were the highest since 2008, when 4,910 housing units were authorized by cities and towns, according to the report from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Norton C. Wheeler III, president of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Connecticut, said Wednesday that new residential construction last year showed promising gains, though there is still a way to in the industry's recovery in the state.

"This is the highest since 2008, but make no mistake that it is still less than half of what we were doing in 2004," Wheeler, owner of the Mystic River Building Co. in Mystic, said. "We're all surprised at the slow pace of the recovery, but the most important part is that we are recovering."

Wheeler noted that construction of single-family houses led the way, followed by building of multifamily structures with five or more units. Two years ago, it was just the opposite, amid a boom in rentals.

Wheeler said rising rental rates are starting to make homeownership more attractive, especially for first-time home buyers.

"Builders are starting to gain confidence themselves that there is a market for the single-family home," Wheeler said.

New home construction fell to a decades low in 2011 but turned around the next year. The levels are still well below the 9,000 to 10,000 units a year that Connecticut's residential construction industry considers a healthy building market.

Wednesday's report is based on a monthly survey of 128 municipalities conducted by the U.S. Census. Once a year, all 169 towns and cities are surveyed for an annual tally.

Typically, monthly and annual counts have closely tracked each other in past years, but that wasn't the case in 2013. The monthly survey showed a decline of 2.7 percent and the annual tally showed a gain of 16.2 percent.

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Home Construction Up 14% Last Year

EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) Two tenants of an apartment complex in Edgewater, New Jersey that was mostly destroyed in a fire have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all residents.

The suit, filed this week in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks damages for economic and property losses from the massive fire at the Avalon at Edgewater complex last week.

The five-alarm blaze destroyed 240 units, permanently displacing 500 residents and temporarily displacing another 520 residents from surrounding buildings.

Our clients have been displaced, many of them from their homes. Many of them have lost everything that was in their homes, attorney Bruce Greenberg, with the firmLite DePalma Greenberg, told 1010 WINS. The lawsuit includes not only people who lived at the Avalon but people who live in the neighborhood and were damaged by the fire as well.

The suit alleges that Avalons property managers initially told residents there was a minor fire in the complex nearly two hours after the fire first started.

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For a short time, building employees were telling residents at the time that the fire didnt seem serious, Greenberg said. Two hours after the fire was first reported, Avalon sent an email to tenants saying that there was, what Avalon called, a minor fire in the complex. In fact, of course, it was a fire that was visible across the river in New York.

While no people died in the blaze, the suit says the fire claimed the lives of many pets and destroyed other irreplaceable items.

It was filed by Robert Loposky and Richard Kemp, who were both residents at the complex, according to the suit. It says Loposky lost all of his personal belongings, including his dogs. It says Kemp also lost all of his personal belongings.

The suit names Maryland-based AvalonBay Communities Inc. as the defendant as well as unknown entities and individuals that may be responsible for and/or may have participated in the improper activities of defendant AvalonBay.

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Tenants File Class Action Lawsuit In Wake Of Massive Fire At Edgewater, NJ Apartment Complex

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Beautifully decorated serviced apartment on high floor with 2 bedrooms rentals - Video

EDGEWATER, N.J., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A fire that devastated a luxury apartment building was ruled to be an accidental result of construction repairs gone wrong.

The fire started when workers were doing plumbing repairs, and spark spread through the walls and the building. Questions surround why the fire was able to spread so quickly and do such severe damage. Gov. Chris Christie said there will be a review to see if the building was up to code. Avalon, the company that owns the complex, said it was built to code, which is focused on saving lives rather than the building.

"There was nothing suspicious about it, and we have complete verification, and there's no doubt about it," said Edgewater Police Chief William Skidmore. "It's just a tragic accident."

Five hundred people are homeless as a result. The fire started Wednesday evening and by Thursday morning 200 of the 408 units were up in smoke.

There are no missing persons but several pets are believed to have died.

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Luxury apartment fire that displaced hundreds sparked by plumbing repair